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College of Arts, Social Sciences, & Celtic Studies, School of Languages, Literature and Culture

Course overview

The Structured PhD in Spanish Studies at NUI Galway offers students a unique opportunity to study under the guidance of academics with expertise in Spanish Cultural Studies, translation, linguistics, second language acquisition, detective fiction, gender studies, issues of identity in literature and issues of space and place in literature. Perhaps one of the most exciting elements of the Structured PhD is the wealth of cross-disciplinary modules offered to the student, which serve to consolidate the student’s learning and guide them towards very interesting and innovative interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to their research topic. It is also envisaged that students on this programme will engage in research in Spain during their studies.

Admission to a Structured PhD is at the discretion of the potential supervisor and the Head of discipline; it is based on a proposal from the applicant, following discussion with the staff member whose academic area of interest is most appropriate. Candidates should possess an honours degree in Spanish (Second Class, Grade 1 minimum) and should normally hold an MA in a relevant area.

As part of the doctoral training available on the Structured PhD programme, students avail themselves of a range of interdisciplinary taught modules. The wide menu of available options include modules that:

are discipline-specific in that they augment the student’s existing knowledge in their specialist area, e.g., Language and Intercultural Communication

are dissertation-specific in that they supply core skills which are essential to completion of the research project, e.g., additional language skills

acknowledge a student’s professional development, e.g., presentation of a paper at an international conference

Each student will be assigned a primary Supervisor(s) and a Graduate Research Committee made up of experienced researchers to plan their programme of study and to provide on-going support to their research.

Areas of interest

Dr Kate Quinn Southern Cone literature and politics; history and theory of the detective genre in Spain and Latin America; historical narrative.

Professor Bill Richardson Spanish language and linguistics; Spanish-English translation; Spanish Second Language Acquisition; deictic reference in Spanish and English; the works of Jorge Luis Borges; the links between language, culture and cognition.

Dr Lorna Shaughnessy Modern Spanish poetry; Modern Latin American poetry; political writing from Central America; cultural theory and post-colonial literatures; women’s movements and popular culture in Central America.